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Mets Complete Stunning Collapse

New York Mets fan George Zafiris of Astoria can't believe the outcome Sunday at Shea Stadium in New York. Credit
John Dunn for The New York Times

The Mets began play in 1962 as the hapless Amazin’s, became the Miracle Mets in 1969 and were reincarnated a few years later as the plucky “Ya Gotta Believe” bunch. Disgusted and disbelieving fans may soon bestow a nickname upon this year’s Mets, and the team will not like it one bit.

The Mets’ listless 8-1 loss to the Florida Marlins yesterday, coupled with the Philadelphia Phillies’ 6-1 victory against the Washington Nationals about five minutes later, eliminated them from postseason contention and saddled them with one of the biggest collapses in baseball history. They lost a seven-game lead in the National League East with 17 to play.

The Mets went 5-12 to close out the season; the Phillies, a beleaguered franchise that had its own historic collapse in 1964, went 13-4. They capitalized as the Mets’ pitching crumbled, their defense disintegrated and their offense, potent at times, fell silent at inopportune moments.

It all happened yesterday, too, and just as swiftly. Tom Glavine, the 41-year-old veteran with 303 career victories, was charged with seven runs and left after one-third of an inning, the second-shortest outing of his 21-season career. The Mets stranded eight runners on base in the first three innings and had only two hits the rest of the way.

“This is just a tough life lesson in baseball,” Manager Willie Randolph said. “Any time you have an opportunity to finish the deal and don’t capitalize on it, it will come back to haunt you. And it sure did with us. The bottom line is that we spit away an opportunity to win the division. It’s going to be a tough winter living with that.”

General Manager Omar Minaya and Randolph took over this franchise within days of each other in 2004 with the singular vision of restoring glory days to the team each cheered for as a youngster. The Mets improved in their first season together and were formidable in their second, coming within a victory of reaching the World Series.

But Minaya must now evaluate all of his personnel, including Randolph and the coaching staff. He may feel compelled to make more sweeping changes than he had envisioned as the franchise, surging in its quest to join the Yankees in the city’s consciousness, attempts to recover from a devastating blow.

The Mets drew healthy television ratings and more than 3.3 million fans for the second consecutive season, but the ending threatens to sour fans who had grown displeased by the Mets’ uncanny ability to win a few, then lose a few, as if they were content to stay only a few games ahead of their rivals.

In a clubhouse filled with boxes that await winter storage, Randolph spoke to his players for about five minutes, his eyes welling with tears as he talked about countless missed opportunities.

They led the Phillies by seven games on Aug. 25. They rebounded from a humbling four-game sweep in Philadelphia by winning 9 of 10, a stretch, several players said, that left them no doubt that they had turned around their season. They held a seven-game lead on Sept. 12 and entered the final week of the season with a lead of two and a half games and a seven-game homestand against sub-.500 teams. They went 1-6.

“It’s obviously painful,” David Wright said. “It hurts. But at the same time, we did it to ourselves. It’s not like it blindsides us. We gradually let this thing slip away. In all honesty, we didn’t deserve to make the playoffs.”

The bench coach Jerry Manuel went from locker to locker hugging players. Jeff Wilpon, the Mets’ senior executive vice president, pulled aside Moises Alou, thanked him for his season and embraced him. The televisions were turned off. No one told the players that the Phillies had won.

The Mets offered one final spell of resistance, which came Saturday during a 13-0 victory that pulled them into a first-place tie, before expiring on the same Shea Stadium grass that played host to the 1986 World Series title.

“I would have said you’re crazy or hated the Mets if you would have said this was going to happen,” center fielder Carlos Beltrán said.

But it did happen. The first signs of trouble came at 10:30 a.m. when Wagner felt compelled to clarify some ill-timed remarks about Randolph and the pitching coach Rick Peterson that will appear in this week’s edition of New York magazine.

Photo

David Wright showing the strain as the Mets hopes of reaching the postseason faded. Credit
John Dunn for The New York Times

From there, the day deteriorated. Glavine left perhaps his final start in a Mets uniform several innings earlier than he would have preferred, having allowed five hits, seven runs and two walks. He made a throwing error and hit a batter, too.

Glavine was booed as he walked off the mound. Then Carlos Delgado fractured his left hand when he was hit by a pitch in the bottom of the first.

José Reyes, his disappointing season coming to a confounding end, was jeered after every at-bat in his 0-for-5 day. Thousands among the crowd of 54,453 deserted Shea Stadium by the seventh inning. Some who stayed started chants of “Fire Willie.” After standing to watch Luis Castillo’s game-ending strikeout, many stayed in their seats, their heads hung in despair.

Although Minaya may consider dismissing some coaches, he does not seem inclined to fire Randolph, who received a new three-year contract before the season and said he did not fear for his job security.

“I’m here to teach these guys to play winning baseball,” Randolph said. “When I don’t do that, obviously, they’re going to get rid of me, or whatever. So I don’t have any qualms, any problems or any worries about stuff like that. I grew up in this town. I know how things work. I know how things play. I’m fully accountable for what I do.”

There are only a few players who are certain to return next season: the young infield cornerstones, Reyes and Wright; Beltrán, who will enter the midway point of his seven-year deal; Wagner; and Pedro Martínez, who has a year remaining on his contract and came back from major shoulder surgery to make only five starts.

“When you get to the end of the year, you have to review everything,” Minaya said. “What are your strengths, what are your weaknesses?”

As the Phillies closed in this month, the Mets forgot the brand of baseball that had brought them to the cusp of another division title. If the biggest culprit was the poor showing by the pitching staff, which posted a 5.96 earned run average over the final 17 games, then Reyes’s noticeable descent ranked second. Over the last two months, he batted .240 and committed the sort of mental mistakes that come with a gap in maturity. The fans, who so often chanted “José, José, José,” are left wondering what has become of their favorite player.

“They wanted me to do good, so that’s why they booed me,” Reyes said.

Now he must wait until next season to win over their hearts again. There will be a new slogan for that team. It will be painted atop the Mets’ dugout over the one that has tortured them all season: Your Season Has Come. The Mets’ season, indeed, has come. And gone.

A version of this article appears in print on , on page A1 of the New York edition with the headline: In Bitter End To Epic Skid, Mets Are Out. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe